As a bulldog owner, it is your responsibility to properly care for your pet, which includes grooming. Grooming up-keeps general hygiene, can prevent illness, and even potential injury. I can not stress enough that regularly grooming your bulldog can and will prevent illness. Good grooming habits is the basis for a healthy, happy bulldog. Another great benefit of grooming include quality time spent with your bully. This is great one on one time where full attention is given to its needs. This is also a great opportunity for you to become familiar with your bulldogs overall health as you tend to your pup on a frequent basis.
But with all grooming, you need the right tools. So what is the Best Grooming Brush for Bulldogs? Depending on the needs of the bulldog, there are several great brushes to choose from. When researching, take into consideration these necessary features:
- Easily removes loose hair
- Keeps the coat shiny
- Durable
Brushes
Despite bulldogs tend to have a short coat, they can use a variety of brushes depending on their coat type and the time of year…i.e. shedding periods. Brushes that work well with bulldog breeds are:
- Bristle Brush: I recommend getting a plastic bristle brush for your bulldog. This helps keep your bulldog puppy’s coat shiny. A double-sided bristle/pin brush has a nice bristle, although you will find you won’t use the pin side often.
- FURminator: I love these since they remove so much hair from dogs…even short haired bulldog breeds. They do have FURminator brushes for shorter coats so be care to only choose the one for short hair.
- Shedding Blades: If you don’t want to use the FURminator, then pick up a shedding blade. It is similar to shedding blades for horses and has small teeth on the comb side. When you run it over a short coat, it will pull out any loose hair.
- Slicker Brush: This is another brush that removes dead hair and is suitable for short haired breeds as well as every other dog breed.
If you are looking for the bare minimum for dog brushes, I would recommend that you have a shedding brush: either the shedding blade or a FURminator and a bristle brush to make your bulldog puppy’s coat shiny.
Other Bulldog Grooming Essentials
Once you have the right brush selected for your bulldog, it is equally important to take care of its other grooming needs. I recommend the following grooming items for any bulldog:
- Nail Clippers and Files
- Styptic Powder
- Tooth Care Kit
- Vaseline
- Dog Wipes
- Eye Wash
- Cotton Balls
- Dog Shampoo
- Ear Cleaners
To know what to look for when selecting grooming items and how to use these items, read the following guidance. In addition, I have listed personal recommendations of Amazon products that have been both tried and tested.
Nail Clippers and Files
Nails are very important and should be clipped several times a month depending on how quickly your dog’s nails grow. When you are choosing a nail clipper there are actually three types of nail clippers you can choose. Everyone has their preference and even some dogs do as well. Regardless of the type you choose, make sure they are durable and high quality.
- Guillotine Nail Clippers: Just how they sound, a guillotine nail clipper has a looped end where you slide your dog’s nail into it. When you squeeze the handle, a blade pushes through the nail like a guillotine, clipping it short. This type of clipper is better for thinner nails or small to medium breeds. Bulldogs usually have thicker nails, so these may not be the best option for your puppy.
- Scissor Nail Clippers: Again, they look very similar to scissors or pliers. Like the guillotine, you place the nail between the blades and squeeze the handles together. The blades come together and clip the nail. These nails are better for most bulldog and large breeds since the scissors offer better force when snipping thick nails.
- Grinding Nail Clippers: I prefer grinding nail clippers and own a Dremel tool that I use. They smooth out the nail while grinding it down and if you hit the quick, it will cauterize it, so you won’t need styptic power to stop the bleeding. There are many pet Dremel on the market and the one I would recommend is the Dremel 7300-PGK Pet Grooming kit.
If you are using guillotine or scissor nail clippers, be sure to purchase nail files as these cutters leave sharp edges when cutting. Simply smooth out the edges after cutting.
Styptic Powder
If you are using a Dremel, you don’t need styptic powder, however, any other type of nail clipper can lead to the quick being cut if you are not being careful. Once cut, the quick will bleed for quite a while so dipping it in styptic powder, or using a styptic pencil, will stop the bleeding instantly.
Tooth Care Kit
Many bulldog breeds suffer from tooth problems, so it is recommended that you get your bulldog puppy used to teeth brushing as soon as they come home. Therefore, before you bring your bulldog puppy home, invest in a good quality toothbrush for him. In addition, make sure you have canine friendly toothpaste found. Human toothpastes can make dogs sick so avoid using any of them.
Vaseline
A strange little item to put in your grooming supplies, Vaseline is excellent for keeping footpads looking their best and for making little bulldog puppy noses nice and shiny. I recommend using year-round, but it is a must have for dry winter months.
Dog Wipes
Since bulldog puppies are known for having lots of wrinkles, it may come as no surprise that you need to wipe them clean on a daily basis. This will help keep your bulldog puppy healthy and will prevent dirt and debris from causing yeast infections in the folds of skin. Make a habit of using dog wipes on your bulldog puppies wrinkles every day.
Eye Wash
While I wouldn’t recommend washing or rinsing your bulldog puppy’s eyes on a regular basis, unless your veterinarian prescribes drops, I do recommend having an eye wash handy. Since bulldogs tend to have large eyes, they can be prone to dirt and debris getting into them. When this happens, having an eye wash handy could mean the difference between having to go to the vet for a serious eye injury or not.
Cotton Balls
I use cotton balls to wipe eyes and ears clean but I also use them in the ears during a bath. Place a few cotton balls in the ears and it will help keep water out of them when you are bathing your bulldog puppy.
Dog Shampoo
Which brings us to bathing. I don’t use medicated shampoos for fleas or ticks since I use treatments recommended by my veterinarian. Instead, I like to choose shampoos that are gentle on the skin and won’t cause eye irritation if it gets into my bulldog puppy’s eyes.
Don’t use shampoos for people. Instead, choose one specially formulated for dogs such as this colloidal oatmeal dog shampoo on Amazon.
Ear Cleaners
The final item I would recommend for your grooming supplies is an ear cleaner. This can be used weekly or as needed whenever you see extra dirt or debris in your bulldog puppy’s ears. Some bulldog puppy’s will require more ear care than others and the shape of your dog’s ears will determine it.
